Biden DOJ Kills Trump-Era Program To Catch Chinese Spies

Republican Senators led by Marco Rubio (FL) have penned an angry letter to Biden AG Merrick Garland over the DOJ's decision to end a program to thwart Chinese spies.

https://www.scribd.com/document/566986994/6889A095A8E066C135607A202217E6C7-03-24-22-rubio-lee-et-al-to-doj-re-china-initiative#download&from_embed

The letter asks why the 2018 Trump administration 'China Initiative' - which was designed to identify and prosecute people hacking, stealing trade secrets, and conducting economic espionage for China within the US, according to Just the News.

"On Feb. 23, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it was effectively ending the China Initiative and implementing a new 'Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats,' which will subsume the China Initiative's work in addition to efforts related to countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea," reads the Thursday letter.

In a speech announcing the termination of the China Initiative, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said that while China "stands apart" as a "brazen" espionage threat, a "broader approach" is needed to confront threats from a "variety" of countries. Olsen called this effort a "strategy for countering nation-state threats."

Republican senators expressed concern that the new approach is ill-defined and therefore may not be effective at specifically combating nefarious activities conducted by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). -JtN

"In light of the continuing national security threat posed by the CCP, and the lack of clarity surrounding DOJ's new 'Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats,' we write seeking clarity with respect to the changes in DOJ's approach," reads the letter. "Specifically, its enforcement efforts to counter espionage and other illicit activities conducted by the CCP."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-doj-kills-trump-era-program-catch-chinese-spies

Record Pentagon Budget Includes $6.9BN For European Deterrence Initiative & $682M To Assist Ukraine

Rebuffing progressive lawmakers' calls for Pentagon spending cuts, President Joe Biden on Monday is set to unveil a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that includes a record $813.3 billion in funds for the U.S. military apparatus, a $31 billion increase from the current level.

"We're being robbed of resources to feed the endless hunger of the military-industrial complex."

The president's Fiscal Year 2023 budget request, which must be approved by Congress, is expected to contain $773 billion for the Pentagon alone as well as billions in funding for the Energy Department's maintenance of the country's nuclear arsenal.

The New York Times reported Monday that Biden's funding request for the Pentagon—the only federal agency that has not passed an independent audit—will "include $4.1 billion to conduct research and develop defense capabilities, nearly $5 billion for a space-based missile warning system to detect global threats, and nearly $2 billion for a missile defense interceptor."

According to Bloomberg, the White House is urging Congress to approve $145.9 billion for procurement, funding that will allow the military to purchase "61 F-35 jet fighters from Lockheed Martin Corp., fewer than previously planned, as well as… the B-21 bomber from Northrop Grumman Corp. and two Virginia-class submarines from General Dynamics Corp. and Huntington Ingalls Industries Corp."

The president's latest budget proposal will land on Capitol Hill amid Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine, which has thus far proven to be a major boon for the U.S. weapons industry as the Biden administration pours arms into the besieged country.

"The hawks in Washington want to jack up the military budget and use Ukraine as an excuse," William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued in a recent interview on Democracy Now!, noting that Biden's new military budget request amounts to $100 billion more than was spent at the height of the Cold War, adjusted for inflation.

Such a massive military budget increase, Hartung warned, "is only going to benefit weapons contractors and members of Congress who receive campaign contributions from them."

In a statement on Monday, Hartung said that "spending to address the Ukraine crisis can be more than readily accommodated under current Pentagon spending levels."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/28/biden-asks-congress-approve-record-813-billion-military-spending

Anyone else having posting issues on gab?

Study finds more screen time for children linked to behavioral problems

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association for Psychiatry found a link between a greater amount of screen time for children and behavioral problems.

The study from a research team at the University of Calgary looked at dozens of scientific studies to arrive at the conclusion that more screen time may lead to harmful behavior.

For children under 12 years of age, the study said there was a "small but statistically significant" link between screen time and the internalization of anxiety or depression, the externalization of aggression, inattention, and showing defiance.

"There’s a signal there. We’re seeing some association between screen time and behavior problems. It’s not particularly robust, but it’s there," said Dr. Sheri Madigan, a senior author of the paper at the University of Calgary.

She went on to point out that child development is "really multi-determined" and can involve numerous environmental factors like socioeconomic status and parenting styles.

The meta-study involved a review of results from over 160,000 children under the age of 12. For those children who were allowed more screen time, the study said they were 11% more likely to externalize behavioral problems like aggression or inattention. They were also 7% more likely to internalize problems like anxiety and depression.

Madigan also said there appeared to be a difference in how screen time affects boys and girls.

"Essentially we found larger associations between screen time and externalizing problems in boys, relative to girls," Madigan explained.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says that children in the U.S. aged between 8 and 12 spend 4 to 6 hours per day in front of a screen.

The researchers noted that the studies were conducted before the pandemic when screen time among children skyrocketed because of schools shutting down in favor of online learning.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/screen-time-behavioral-problemsstudy

https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx

Pfizer Board Member: Mask Mandate on Airlines Will Be Lifted Soon

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb is predicting that the federal mask mandate for airlines and other public transportation will be lifted in April if there’s no surge in COVID-19 cases.

Gottlieb, who led the FDA between 2017 and 2019, said he believes the Biden administration’s mask mandate for mass transit will be allowed to expire on April 18.

“If we’re not in the thick of another wave of BA.2 infection in the middle of April, I think they will go ahead and lift that,” Gottlieb told CNBC in a recent interview. “I think the uncertainty around that is we are starting to see infections start to creep up. If it kind of levels off in the next couple of weeks, which it may, I think the administration will go ahead and lift that.”

“My view was that they should lift that requirement on airlines,” he said.

The mandate should be lifted if the BA.2 Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 isn’t surging across the United States, he said.

But should infections rise in April, it’s likely the mandate won’t be lifted, the Trump-era FDA chief said.

“If we’re actually seeing a wave of infection—we’re unclear how large it’s going to be—I think it’s very hard to lift it in that kind of a backdrop, so you’d probably extend it a month,” Gottlieb said.

Major airline CEOs recently called on President Joe Biden to drop the mask mandate for airports and planes, according to an open letter that was issued earlier in March.

“Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions,” the letter reads.

It was signed by chief executives from American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and several others.

“It is critical to recognize that the burden of enforcing both the mask and predeparture testing requirements has fallen on our employees for two years now,” the letter states. “This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being.”

Adding more pressure on the White House, nine flight attendants recently filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services in a bid to block the mask mandate.

The nine plaintiffs—who work for Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines—wrote that the mandates cause “chaos in the sky” and made note of “thousands of reports” sent to the Federal Aviation Administration for “‘unruly’ passenger behavior” over about the past year.

https://www.ntd.com/pfizer-board-member-mask-mandate-on-airlines-will-be-lifted-soon_758050.html

IRS gave $64 million in stimulus checks to dead people: report

In total, computer programming errors caused the erroneous issue of more than $100 million.

The Internal Revenue Service sent $64 million in erroneous payments to as part of the American Rescue Plan due to a computer error of which the agency was aware but did not fix, according to an inspector general report.

Nearly 45,000 payments totaling $64 million were sent to people for their deceased dependents, who died before Jan. 1, 2021, making them ineligible for Biden's stimulus payments of up to $1,400.

"We alerted the IRS to this programming error in April 2021. IRS management agreed that these payments were issued erroneously. However, IRS management did not provide their corrective action to address future erroneous payments," the treasury inspector general stated in a report released last week.

The IRS went on to issue more than 400 additional incorrect payments for those with a deceased dependent after being alerted to the issue, the watchdog said.

In total, more than $100 million was incorrectly issued due to computer programming errors up to September 2021, the inspector general stated.

IG estimates show $1.9 billion was was erroneously paid to more than one million people. More than half a billion of that went to over 300,000 "potential ineligible nonresidents."

The IRS agreed that there was an issue with all except about 130,000 of the payments. The agency then "implemented programming changes," according to the inspector general's report.

A previous watchdog report found early pandemic payments had even more problems, but slightly less money was went to nonresidents. In July 2020, $3.5 billion was given to nearly 2.2 million people who were deceased. More than $440 million was given to over 320,000 nonresidents at that time.

In total, by July 2020, more than 4.4 million people incorrectly received $5.5 billion, according to the inspector general.

Biden has faced accusations of covering up pandemic fraud.

"Last year, when congressional Democrats rammed through the partisan $1.9 trillion so-called COVID stimulus, which drove inflation, by the way, in a major way, our colleagues rejected numerous Republican amendments that would have targeted relief and prevented fraud," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said last month.

"Now, the Biden administration has taken unilateral action to sweep suspected fraud under the rug, allowing states to waive large numbers of suspicious claims and forego recovery and restitution for taxpayers," the Texas Republican said.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/irs-gave-64-million-stimulus-checks-dead-people-report

>>15966752

ME NATO forming

New Study by John Lott Jr. Reveals Biden Received More than 225,000 Excess Votes in 2020 Election

A new report by John Lott, Jr. at the journal Public Choices reveals Joe Biden received more than 250,000 excess votes for president in the 2020 election.

Lott says there were 255,000 excess votes and possibly as many as 368,000 for Biden in the key states.

The Washington Examiner reported:

A new deep dive into discrepancies in the ballot counts of six key battleground states in the 2020 election has turned up more than 250,000 “excess votes” for President Joe Biden, and maybe far more.

The key point in the upcoming peer-reviewed study for the journal Public Choice by economist and noted gun expert John Lott Jr. is that the excess voting may challenge — or explain — Biden’s margin of victory over former President Donald Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

In his report, on the Public Choice website but still awaiting final approval, Lott said that there were 255,000 excess votes and possibly as many as 368,000 for Biden in the key states.

And in a review of his statistical study he provided to RealClearPolitics, he said that “Biden only carried these states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — by a total of 313,253 votes. Excluding Michigan, the gap was 159,065.”

Lott, who runs the Crime Prevention Research Center, said that his report was not meant to overturn the 2020 election but to reinforce the need for changes to voter identification, absentee voting, and provisional ballots.

“The point of this work isn’t to contest the 2020 election, but to point out that we have a real problem that needs to be dealt with. Americans must have confidence in future elections,” he wrote.

In the study, Lott reviewed voter registration rolls, actual in-person vote counts, absentee voting, and provisional ballots in counties where fraud has been alleged or suggested. He compared those counts to neighboring counties, arguing that the percentages should be similar.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/03/new-study-john-lott-jr-reveals-biden-received-225000-excess-votes-2020-election/